They say that the best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google because most people rarely go looking for something past the first search results page. And no, this isn’t the guide on how to get away with murder! It’s a basic understanding of what you need to do in order to attract maximum visitors to your website.
Of course, improving the ranking of your website on Google and other search engines is crucial because people generally associate higher placement with credibility.
In Australia, Google holds almost 94% of the share of search queries made, which asserts the fact that focusing on this platform alone is enough. Also, the results on the first page get 95% of the traffic, whereas almost 30% of people simply click on the first link that shows up. Indeed it is not possible for every website to get to the top, but showing up on the first page is a practical goal to achieve. This is why marketers invest heavily in SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
Here are a few ways in which you can improve your website ranking:
1. Targeting keywords
Whenever you search for something in Google, you type in certain phrases. Every phrase has keywords that the search engine’s algorithm uses to rank websites according to relevance. Therefore, the first thing to do is have an audit done on your website, preferably by an independent SEO consultant. Professionals like P. Singh have the knowledge, experience, and insights to ascertain what you are doing right and what needs improvement. They can offer you crucial guidance about how to move forward.
And while the SEO consultant can provide you with certain specific guidelines, there are some that you need to be aware of generally. Almost everyone knows about keywords but not how to use them. Most businesses overuse keywords in their content, an exercise called “keyword stuffing”. Unfortunately for this practice, Google’s algorithm has evolved substantially over time, and its sophisticated mechanics no longer look for just keywords. They analyze content based on various other factors like relevance to the user’s query, quality of content, and visual elements.
Unnecessarily stuffing keywords in your content puts it on the radar of Google to flag it as spam or an attempt at manipulation. As a result, your website ranking can drop further down instead of going up, something you would want to avoid at all costs.
2. Overhaul the existing content on your website
Now that you know what your website’s current strong suits and gaps are, you can start working on them. First and foremost, you need to optimize the content already on the site because unless your website is new and you haven’t posted anything yet, you can’t just go on and change every piece of content on it. Start by improving keyword integration of the content. You can easily find relevant keywords and their frequency of use on portals like Google Keyword Planner.
Once you have the list of keywords relevant to your business and its target market, you can integrate them into content that matters. However, it is crucial that you make subtle placements and don’t, at any cost, stuff keywords where they don’t fit. Google’s algorithms are able to tell when you are going overboard with keywords, and as mentioned before, rankings drop rather than increase as a result. Add keywords properly in the meta description, article title, headers, and actual content.
While you are at it, also work on the content quality of the pieces on your website. This includes both articles or blogs and the web copy on various landing pages. Make sure there are no grammatical errors and that the content is informative. It is pertinent to ensure that the content is broken into shorter blocks, is easy to read, and appropriately structured with headings and sub-headings. It also helps to make the content interesting and captivating for the reader.
3. Improve the quality of your backlinks
Another crucial SEO element is backlinks or any hyperlinks to internal or external sources that you add to your website. Backlinks that are reliable and high quality allow your website rankings to go up. Adding links from credible sources like Forbes and Harvard Review gives your content more authority and credibility.
What’s to note here is that the real challenge is getting a backlink from reputable sources in the first place. You can add these links to your own content, but you’ll need to have a certain quality of text so that credible websites also want to link with your site. Being able to even get a backlink on a leading page that holds authority with Google can completely transform your SEO game, instantly allowing your website to jump through the ranks.
4. Focus on the mobile-friendliness of your website
Did you know that almost 98% of Google users in Australia access it over a mobile phone? Despite this, most websites in the country and even globally are not optimized with mobile-friendly versions. Most people assume that the desktop iteration of their website works on mobile as well. That is partly true because the website does open, but since the calibrations of a desktop screen and mobile screen are different, the content becomes distorted and confusing, which eventually drives visitors away.
In order to avoid this, you need to have your website optimized for smart devices too. You need to integrate easy-to-touch buttons and a layout that displays everything, including visuals, graphics, and text optimally on a small screen too. Google has already instated a mobile-first indexing policy, according to which the platform uses the mobile version of a site to rank and index this. This means that a website that is not mobile-friendly is losing out on its chances to rise through the ranks.
Conclusion
The ranking of your website depends on your SEO strategy. Targeting precise keywords, integrating them carefully and beautifully, getting high-quality backlinks, optimizing the website for mobile and tablet screens, using optimal quality images, and focusing on on-page SEO elements are some ways you can enhance your rankings. These may seem like simple steps, but it is common knowledge that millions of websites are all vying for the same position. Therefore, your strategy needs to be pre-emptive and intuitive to improve rankings.
